Posted a part of this in another thread. From the Charlottesville newspaper, "The Daily Progress"....the second bolded statement is complete lunacy and ass-covering of the first order. It is very clear that O'Connor is extremely pissed off.
Selection committee chairman Scott Sidwell said things were “very, very razor thin” between Clemson and Virginia.
“[The committee had] significant amount of discussion about this particular regional host award,” Sidwell said during a Monday teleconference. “I think ultimately as we looked at all of it, there were arguments on both sides. One thing that stood out to us was the nonconference strength of schedule for Virginia was significantly higher than it was for Clemson.”
By “higher,” Sidwell means the actual number. UVa’s strength of schedule rank was No. 238. Clemson’s was No. 81, according to
D1Baseball.com.
Virginia coach Brian O’Connor addressed that issue by stressing the Cavaliers’ location. The Tigers play an annual series against South Carolina. Finding such a high-caliber matchup isn’t as easy for a program in Central Virginia.
Mystery, too, surrounds why the Cavaliers, who barely missed hosting a regional, are having to travel to a national seed site. Projections by both
D1Baseball.com and Baseball America had UVa in Kentucky’s regional. The Wildcats are not a national seed.
“If Virginia is a 2-seed and let’s hypothetically say we’re one of the better 2-seeds out there in the tournament, I don’t think we should be going to a national seed,” O’Connor said. “And I don’t say that for Virginia. I say that to protect the national seed.
“If you’re trying to seed this tournament and you’re picking the eight teams, the eight national seeds that they believe should go to Omaha, then we should be doing, as a tournament, the best way to protect those eight teams.”
Sidwell’s explanation of why the ’Hoos are being shipped to Fort Worth left room for clarity.
“One of the things that is challenging about the process of how we seed the teams is there’s certain criteria that we’re bound to by the bylaws and is determined by the association and how we seed that,” Sidwell said. “And there’s some restrictions on travel and different things that make it difficult.”
Flights have been required all five times the Cavaliers have had to travel for regionals in the 14-year O’Connor era. Virginia, coming off an ACC Tournament title and holding an RPI of 6 in 2009, was sent to Irvine, California, in a regional that included No. 6 national seed UC Irvine, a Stephen Strasburg-led San Diego State club and defending national champion Fresno State.
